Preserving: How to make the harvest last

Fresh Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce over pasta.

Photograph by: Handout
, Courtesy of Julie Van Rosendaal

It’s harvest season — when fresh fruit and vegetables abound, ripe and flavourful after a long summer in the field, garden or orchard. If you have a freezer, you can easily stash away fresh or precooked produce. It’s a good time to do it — not only is most produce at its best in the fall, a generous harvest means it’s more inexpensive than at any other time of year.

How to roast tomatoes and peppers

Tomatoes and peppers roast beautifully, taking on a sweet, smoky edge. Roasting concentrates flavour while cooking off excess moisture, condensing the fruit. Roasted tomatoes and peppers freeze very well, and retain their shape once thawed.

Tomatoes: Fleshy Roma or plum tomatoes and whole cherry or grape tomatoes work best for roasting, as they contain less juice and fewer seeds. To roast tomatoes, cut them in half lengthwise (if they’re larger than cherry tomatoes, otherwise leave them whole) and arrange in a single layer, cut-side-up, on a parchment-lined rimmed baking sheet. Drizzle with canola or olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast at 425°F (220°C) for 45 minutes to an hour, or until the tomatoes are soft and starting to turn golden on the edges. Store in the fridge for up to a week, or freeze in freezer bags for up to 6 months.

Peppers: halve them lengthwise and pull out their seeds. Place cut-side down on a parchment or foil-lined sheet (to minimize cleanup) and roast at 450°F (230°C) for 20 to 30 minutes, or until starting to blister and blacken on top. Remove from the oven and place in a bowl; cover with a tea towel (or use the parchment or foil from the sheet) and set aside. Once cool enough to handle, peel away the skins with your fingers, holding the peppers over the bowl to catch any juices. (Don’t run them under water — this will rinse away much of the juices and flavour!) Store in the fridge for up to a week (if you like, put them in a jar, add fresh garlic cloves and cover with olive oil), or freeze in freezer bags for up to 6 months.

How to prep and freeze fresh veggies at their peak

Blanching fresh vegetables quickly before freezing helps prevent them from becoming soggy as they thaw; blanch prepared veggies by plunging into a pot of boiling salted water for a minute or two, then remove with a slotted spoon and dip into a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking process and cool them down. The more quickly produce freezes, the better — slow freezing produces large ice crystals that can destroy texture. Freeze blanched vegetables in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet, then transfer to freezer bags or containers, or freeze them directly in bags or containers — either way, push out as much air as possible to minimize freezer burn. Cook vegetables directly from frozen unless a recipe specifies thawing them first.

Beans: trim stem ends and blanch for 2 minutes; cool and freeze in freezer bags or containers for up to 6 months.

Carrots: trim stem ends, slice or cut into matchsticks and blanch for 2 minutes; cool and freeze in freezer bags or containers for up to 6 months.

Chard: trim any large stems and blanch for 1 minute; cool and freeze in freezer bags or containers for up to 6 months.

Corn: scrape kernels off the cob, blanch for 3 minutes, cool and freeze in freezer bags or storage containers.

Kale: trim any large stems and blanch for 2 minutes; cool and freeze in freezer bags or containers for up to 6 months.

Peas: shell and blanch for 2 minutes; cool and freeze in freezer bags or storage containers for up to 6 months.

Peppers: don’t need blanching; remove the seeds and membranes and chop fresh peppers or roast them (see above); freeze in freezer bags or storage containers for up to 6 months.

Spinach: trim any large stems and blanch for 1 minute; cool and freeze in freezer bags or containers for up to 6 months.

Zucchini: slice and blanch for 2 minutes; cool and freeze in freezer bags or storage containers for up to 6 months. Alternatively, grate raw, unblanched zucchini and freeze in freezer bags or storage containers to use in soups and baked goods such as cakes, muffins and loaves.

Fresh Tomato & Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

Homemade tomato sauce is great to have stashed away in the freezer over the winter — use it on and in pasta dishes, but also in soups, stews and braises. This sauce is simple to make — there’s no need to peel the tomatoes first, which means less prep work and more fibre in the finished sauce. It also gets a boost from roasted red peppers, which whirl right in.

1/4cup (50 mL) canola or olive oil

1 head garlic, separated into cloves and peeled

5 to 8 lb (2.2 to 3.6 kg) fresh ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped

3 to 4 roasted red peppers (see above)

2 tsp (10 mL) sea salt

a few fresh basil leaves, chopped

In a large pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic cloves and cook for a minute, until starting to soften. Add the tomatoes, peppers and salt, bring to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for half an hour or so, breaking up the tomatoes and peppers with a spoon.

Stir in the basil and puree the sauce in batches in a blender or directly in the pot with a hand-held immersion blender. Cool completely and freeze in zip-lock freezer bags or other freezer-safe containers for up to a year. To use, thaw in the fridge or reheat from frozen on the stovetop over medium-low heat. (If you like, add a splash of cream as it reheats for a rose sauce.) Makes about 10 cups (2.5 L).

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